Migrant workers join hands for a better life

Workers in Jordan and Lebanon, who come mainly from South Asian nations, overcome adversity to help themselves.

Sun Dec 21 2014 08:07:06 GMT+0000

Rose from Cameroun holds her goddaughter in a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. She has been working as a domestic worker for 15 years. While a formal organisation for migrant domestic workers doesn(***)t exist yet in Lebanon, Rose is one of the founding members of Lebanon(***)s Domestic Worker Committee, the Arab region(***) first body that represents domestic workers established with the support of the ILO and the National Federation of Employees and Workers in the country.

Every year the International Labour Organisation and the international community mark International Migration Day on December 18, the day the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families was adopted in 1990.

This year the ILO Regional Office for the Arab States Migration and Governance Network (MAGNET), shed light on how migrant workers cook, compete, worship, organise and learn from each other to better their lives and lobby for their rights in Lebanon and Jordan.

Throughout the Arab region, migrant workers suffer from a dearth of fundamental rights at work, including the right to a day off once a week. As a result, many migrants in the region rarely leave their place of work or have the opportunity to meet with fellow workers from their countries.

In this photo reportage, the ILO gives voice to the inspiring women and men who, despite the odds, have come together to create informal organisations and support networks. These workers choose to use their only day off to assist their fellow migrants in realising their right to decent work wherever they may live and work.

*The full names of the workers in this photo story have not been revealed at their request.

Out of an overall workforce of around 1.45 million in Lebanon, an estimated 150,000 to 220,000 are women migrant domestic workers, according to various institutional sources from 2012. Because of the nature of their employment contracts, many are confined to the homes in which they work, and rarely integrate with their host community. Rose, one of the lucky migrant domestic workers to be granted a day off, was trained to prepare homemade Cameroonian food for sale at a Beirut farmer(***)s market in November, as part of an ILO project to promote integration and cultural diversity.

Rahel, an Ethiopian domestic worker, is also a member of the Domestic Workers Committee. She began to support her fellow Ethiopian domestic workers in any way she could many years before the committee(***)s establishment. (***)I remember when a woman showed up at my door very sick, and it turned out she had tuberculosis,(***) she recalls. (***)My employer is very supportive and helped me find a hospital for her.(***)

A budding filmmaker, Rahel uses the stories she hears from migrant domestic workers in Lebanon in films she puts together about their plight. Many migrant workers across the Arab region are unprepared for the life they embark upon. They face physical, sexual, and psychological abuse at the hands of their employers as well as the private employment agencies that recruit them.

For the past 14 years, St Joseph Church has lent Sri Lankan Buddhists, who do not have a temple to pray in Lebanon, a space to practise their faith. Domestic work is excluded from the Lebanese Labour Code, and migrant workers are not entitled to the same protection as other workers. Even though Lebanese law entitles domestic workers to a weekly day off, many migrant workers are unaware of their rights and often must negotiate holiday time and daily working hours with employers on an individual basis.

(***)We try to help each other deal with our sadness. We have very difficult lives, we miss our families,(***) said a Buddhist domestic worker. The majority of them are only allowed to visit their home countries every two or three years.

Fernando, left, is a Sri Lankan office worker who has been in Lebanon for 15 years and organises a weekly cricket league for migrant workers in Rabieh during his free time. (***)It(***)s not easy organising the cricket tournament and gathering all the teams every week,(***) he says. (***)But we love the game, this is part of our lives as migrant workers, and this is how we enjoy our day off.(***) Fernando supports a wife and two children in Sri Lanka and is only allowed to travel to see them once every two years under the terms of his employment contract.

The migrant workers(***) cricket club not only brings the migrant labour community together for fun and play, but also functions as an informal cooperative. Team members contribute to a common fund, which acts as a form of social protection. Team members can withdraw from the fund when they are in need.

Members of the Filipino community in Amman, Jordan, perform a traditional dance in October to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the United Filipino Organisation, an informal collective of Filipino nationals in Jordan. Although Jordan has ratified Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) migrant worker voices are rarely represented in trade unions. Dedicated formal cooperatives and organisations for migrant workers do not yet exist here.

Evangeline, president of the United Filipino Organisation, walks by the trophy stand at a community sporting event in Amman. She says her mother, one of the first women in the Philippines to represent a community at the municipal level, inspired her to start the organisation. Feeling that there was a gap in the representation of the Filipino community in Amman, Evangeline drew from her mother(***)s example of how to mobilise community members.

Arshad plays with his grandsons in his home in al-Zarqa, Jordan. He migrated to Jordan from his native Pakistan over 25 years ago to work in a garment factory at one of the country(***)s Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZ). He has since married and left the factory to join the General Trade Union for Garment Workers as a full time employee. Since 2010, migrant workers have been allowed to join existing trade unions in Jordan.

As a representative of the General Trade Union for Garment Workers, Arshad says workers constantly call him with complaints, which he then takes up with their employers. He offers to mediate between employers and workers on the issue of various workers(***) rights such as basic pay, working hours, sick days and days off.

Originally conceived by the Joint ILO-International Finance Corporation project, Better Work Jordan, the Al Hassan Industrial Zone Workers(***) Centre is situated in the dusty outskirts of the city of Ramtha, some 70km north of Amman. The centre offers services to some 30,000 migrant workers who live and work in the Al Hassan Industrial Zone. Roughly 80 percent of workers in the zone are migrants from the Asian subcontinent, mainly from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Dance classes are one of the most popular activities at the Al Hassan Industrial Zone Workers(***) Centre. Open five evenings a week and all day on Friday, the centre has proved to be a popular destination for migrant workers. The centre also offers legal advice and trade union support.

Sandra, who hails from Myanmar, moved to Jordan when she saw a poster advertising work opportunities for Burmese workers in the garment sector. She has now left work at a garment factory to take up a full time position at the centre. After seeing an increase in cases of harassment, sexual abuse and even rape among her fellow Burmese nationals, she started to organise self-defence and awareness classes at the centre.